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Eris

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Everything posted by Eris

  1. I’m not sure that money is as big of a concern as many articles on TD seem to suggest. Between Bell and Caratini they had 14 million in salary.
  2. This was Sano’s listed weight. The actual weight was thought to be closer to 275 lbs.
  3. My memory of Sano’s specifics are fading, but in the end his challenge became he could not lay off sliders and breaking pitches that were low and away (similar to Lewis) and as such became an easy strike out. Rodriguez should avoid this fate because he has elite pitch recognition. His problem is quite different in that his in zone contact is much less than expected for an elite hitter.
  4. I would add to this that it is also really hard to upgrade from average to excellent and the Twins have a lot of average players. Take Trevor Larnach and his 2.2 fWAR. His replacement (Rodriguez or Jenkins) would need to have about 3.5 fWAR to make a meaningful difference. There will be about 15 outfielders with more 3.5 fWAR for this season. If either Rodriguez or Jenkins achieves that they will likely be a top contender for RoY. It does happen but it is very unrealistic to expect a prospect to come up and deliver that level of production.
  5. I think the Twins have their direction it is now a matter of how well they can perform. Counting WAR. Can Lee, Culpepper, Keaschall and Clemens maintain current levels of production. If Yes then 10 - 12 WAR. Does Buxton comeback healthy. If yes, 2.5 to 4 WAR. Therefore between LF, 1B part time CF and C they will need about 8 - 10 WAR. Rodriguez looks legit. I could see him playing at RoY levels (3 WAR). As things currently stand I would anticipate Ceratini and Lewis producing 1.5 to 2 WAR each. That gives 17 to 21 WAR. That math is a little fuzzy. People may notice I have not included a DH as I am expecting Keaschall and Buxton to occupy the DH. Which leaves room for Jenkins. In summary, if Culpepper, Rodriguez and Jenkins are all chasing RoY and put up 3 WAR each and if Buxton is healthy and gets to 3 WAR the Twins will be very competitive. The question is it realistic to expect that as outcome. Probably not, Twins fans are seldom that lucky and the previous core from 2023 flamed out faster than a falling meteorite. To be realistically competitive the Twins will need to add about 5 WAR by upgrading 2 positions. As things currently stand 1B and C are the most in need of upgrades. Maybe we really need to resign Jeffers. As pointed out on a different thread there are plenty of free agent 2B.
  6. Because Larnach was / is the 3rd or 4th best hitter on the Twins and is approximately in the 75th percentile as an MLB hitter. Players who are above average hitters have value. The problem with Larnach is he should be a full time DH and the Twins also have 5 or 6 players whose best position is DH.
  7. It should be quite a few players having played their last games with the Twins. Considering who has earned a spot on the roster for next year. 3B Lee, SS Culpepper, 2B /utility Clemens, OF Buxton, Keaschall, Rodriguez (and possibly Jenkins). That’s it. Six or seven players have earned a roster spot for 13 positions. Everyone else is very replaceable, or leaving via free agency, or hoping they live up to their prospect potential.
  8. I don’t really have an issue with the article as the author makes clear in the first paragraph that he is summarizing and discussing that “ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranks the Twins’ current core near baseball’s basement.” I also think the assessment of the Twins lacking elite talent is correct. Where I would question the methodology is that elite talent is defined as >5 WAR. I am not sure this is a meaningful metric as the number of 5 fWAR players is quite limited. There were 17 MLB players with >5 fWAR in 2025 and there are about 10 this year. Really a SSS to base conclusions. The other consideration is that even some of the highest ranked MLB prospects struggle to have even an average career. I would look at this a little differently. Very good teams achieve about 25 fWAR from position players and about 20 fWAR from pitching. What do the Twins need to do to get this level. Lacking elite talent a team will need at least 6 or more position players producing at 3 fWAR or better. The Twins will not have a single position player with 3 fWAR for this season.
  9. At this point Culpepper with 42 days of service time (Aug 7 to September 16) and 120 plate appearances would retain his rookie eligibility for next year. IL time is excluded. Is this correct? Is there any value for the Twins or Culpepper to retain his rookie status for next season.
  10. The challenge is that there have been a lot of first round picks that have flamed out. Gordon, Stewart, Jay, Lewis, Kirilloff, Cavaco. There were others like Wallner and Julian who looked like they were headed for greatness but couldn’t sustain early success. The dearth of current elite talent reflects this.
  11. Ober spent time on the IL last season with left hip impingement. I wonder if he is hurt.
  12. I think it is far too early to declare that the Twins have an excess of catching. Being a MLB catcher is one of the toughest positions.
  13. Buxton has played a full season once in his career and has been above 100 games played 3X. Therefore there is no need to worry about not having playing time for a 4th outfielder. One item the article does not break down is that Keaschall has played a half season in the outfield. Has he improved as the season has progressed. He has made some very good catches in the outfield (so there is hope). He has also had some bad misreads.
  14. Ty France has 3.1 fWAR. Mickey Gasper has 1.0 fWAR over 53 games which roughly gets to 3 WAR had he been able to maintain this level of production over the course of a full season. I guess this speaks to the core of the problem when 2 cast offs are outperforming the core contributors. The Twins have an interesting roster construction problem. A roster full of players with 2.0 fWAR contributions is not really a playoff competitive team yet it is very difficult to improve on 2.0 fWAR production and Twins need several players who are going to get 3.0 - 4.0 fWAR production before they go for an average to a very good team. There are currently about 115 MLB hitters with 2.0 fWAR or better (about 1/3 of the hitters). There are about 75 pitchers (1/5 th of the total number of pitchers) who are currently at or above 2.0 fWAR.
  15. Hmmm. Looking for comps. There is Austin Hedges who threw out 3 runners in 41 attempts. A 10% CS doesn’t really work for me. Maybe it used to be 5% and this represents a 100% improvement and that’s MacPhail was glowing about. Maybe Diaw can play CF.
  16. Lewis isn’t going to be a decent hitter until he stops swinging at pitches a foot out of the strike zone.
  17. Renaissance is misapplied here for the Twins international signees. Jackson Chourio (2024 MLB #2 prospect has put up 10 WAR since being called up) and Jesus Made is the current MLB #1 prospect). In addition, Luis Peña is ranked #21 in MLB for the Brewers. That is a Renaissance.
  18. Why should we not expect drafting and player development success as it is one of the main paths to a competitive team. The Twins have had 20 years of failure in the draft including many high picks and international signees. Of the players on this list (not including Jenkins or Rodriguez) only Berrios has not been a disappointment.
  19. Because the “real” issues were / have not been addressed. We have too many players whose best position is DH. Looking at the current roster who has earned a roster spot for next season. Lee, Keaschall, Culpepper, and Clemens.
  20. There was never an expectation that Brooks Lee would stick at SS. One of the flaws in the Twins player development is not identifying the best MLB position for some of their prospects and making sure they get lots of minor league experience at that position. Players who have played most of their minor league at SS for the Twins include Lee, Martin and Lewis. I don’t think this is a good strategy.
  21. An additional issue with roster construction is that in several positions there was a huge fall off in capability of the starter and the injury replacement. This is mostly seen at CF but applies for many positions. Also, before Culpepper there was not acceptable defense at SS and there is still inadequate/inconsistent production at 1B and poor defense in LF and RF. Even with a healthy Buxton CF defense was below league average.
  22. The Twins currently roster is along way from being a playoff competitive team—especially on defense. On the current roster only Keaschall and Larnach (who many expect not to be on team next year) have hit well enough to justify carrying them on the team despite their poor defense. There should be an expectation that everyone else is average or better defensively. Currently, Lee, Culpepper, Jenkins and maybe Clemens likely meet that. Buxton is now a below average CF and needs a new position. Everyone else the Twins need to consider moving on from.
  23. Highest MLB ranking Sano (2 or 3) Kirilloff (top 20) Lewis (top 30) Buxton (#1 for 2 or 3 years). My point being that the Twins had a number of good/great prospects but injuries and inability to hit MLB pitching stands between being a prospect and being an elite player.
  24. Realistically, the Twins have only Ryan Jeffers (and Culpepper maybe) who are above average both offensively and defensively. They have one of the worst defensives in all of MLB. This is not a championship team. What it takes to be a championship team. They need 3 or 4 players who can contribute better than 4 WAR a season. On the current roster only a healthy Buxton could play at that level. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I believe that the trades were made to maintain fan interest/attendance rather than with an expectation that this team would be competitive in the postseason. While much has been made on TD about last year’s trade deadline, they did not address the fundamental weaknesses of the team which were/are about 5 or 6 players whose best position was DH.
  25. Larnach, even with the bad August, is somewhere between the 67th to 75th ranked player by offensive contribution (WRC+ or OWAR). There are 390 roster spots for hitters (13 x30). Someone who can hit well above average will have a roster spot somewhere—in Larnach’s as a DH. Maybe Larnach is hurt. He has had a history of groin muscle injuries.
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